The final decision as to what type of garden you will want is not reached at the snap of a finger, but can be achieved in one of two ways. The first, and most businesslike, is to write down all pertinent facts and figures concerning yourself, your family, the size of your property, the size of your house, its exposure, etc. The other, which is just as workable but perhaps a little more confusing and likely to cause you undue worry, is simply to carry your ideas around in your head and finally try to put them on paper in the form of a plan. These are not solutions of your problem but rather helpful guides.

The more orderly method is to make a check list and to give our thought reality we shall consider the requirements of a family living in a development of identical houses in Central New Jersey. Their check list should be used as a guide in making your own.

Topography – Fairly level Exposure – South ( that is, front of house faces south) Location – Central New Jersey Design of garden – Informal Existing vegetation ( trees and shrubs ) – None Garage – Single, attached Soil – Sandy loam, well drained Neighboring properties – Houses on both sides Age of owners – early 30′s Family – Father, mother, and three young children Parents like to work in garden Parents also like to relax in and enjoy the garden, and plan to entertain extensively out-of-doors. Size of property-75 x 125 feet Budget – calls for an expenditure of $750 a year for 6 years.

Analyzing the List

It is obvious that since this family intends to spend a great deal of time relaxing and entertaining their friends out-of-doors they will need a larger than average private area. The rough sketch will include ovals on the basic plot plan the majority of space in the area behind the house is labeled private.

Since the majority of space is devoted to this area, it is obvious that the service area must necessarily be small, perhaps just large enough to provide a few fresh vegetables and flowers that do not require too much care. The completed plan of a garden should serve our hypothetical family well. It provides them with a vast outdoor living room that will be excellent for entertaining and just enough service area to provide tomatoes, string beans, radishes, and flowers.

Now let us consider a neighboring family in similar circumstances who do not plan extensive outdoor entertainment. In their case the service area could be greatly expanded at the expense of the private area.The service area may occupy better than half the space behind the house is sufficiently large to provide all sorts of fresh vegetables and cut and specimen flowers, while the private area, though small, remains large enough to meet the relaxation needs of the family.

Give a great deal of thought and attention to compiling your own check list. Never fail to consider your future as well as your present requirements; plan your garden in such a way that it will mature to fit all your needs with a, minimum expenditure of time, effort, and money. Just like caring for spider mites on plants.

Since our list has shown us how to determine the relative sizes of the public, private, and service areas, we are now ready to begin developing the individual areas. Your next step is to consider each particular area and proceed to mold it into actuality.

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When developing the public area, we need only keep in mind three fundamental landscape principles that concern this particular part of a property. They are: (1) soften the architectural lines of the building by placing plants where the strong vertical lines meet the ground; (2) frame the building with trees; and (3) maintain an open lawn area.

We could state the first principle even more simply by saying that the plants should be located at the corners of the building and at either side of the entrances.

Architectural Lines

Height of Plants

In nearly every case the plants to be used at the corners of the building should be of a type that will naturally grow larger than those to be used at either side of the doorway. Generally speaking, the ideal ultimate height of a plant at the corner of a one- or two-story building should be a little less than half the distance from the ground to the eaves.

In deciding what plants to use, we must find out what their ultimate height must be if they are to soften the lines of the house. First, sketch the front of the house to scale (or use a photograph and tracing paper).

Then, following the above method draw straight lines from points on each outside edge of the house slightly less than halfway to the eaves, to the center of the front door sill. Note also that the plants on either side of the door should eventually reach only about as high as the line is at that particular point.

Plants at the corners of the house are always taller than those next to the front door. The one exception to this rule occurs when the house has corner windows that wrap around both sides of the house. Many times you will see that although the plants immediately under the windows are lower than, or just about the same height as, those at the entrance, the original thought of having taller plants at the corners is carried out by the addition of small flowering trees or larger shrubs at a distance from the window. This gives the same effect, but does not sacrifice ventilation or light through the corner windows.

Pointed Plants

If possible, do not use plants which come to a sharp point at either doors or windows. But there is rare exception to this rule: Suppose that you have a house with very tall, narrow windows, or high-peaked gables or dormers; the natural surroundings include sharp-pointed evergreens and jagged mountain tops. In this case pointed plants like ficus alii at doors and windows would fit the environment.

Another exception might apply to the owner of a modern ranch home. He might use sharp-pointed plants to break long, straight roof lines.

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categories: landscape, garden, home improvement, plants

The final decision as to what type of garden you will want is not reached at the snap of a finger, but can be achieved in one of two ways. The first, and most businesslike, is to write down all pertinent facts and figures concerning yourself, your family, the size of your property, the size of your house, its exposure, etc. The other, which is just as workable but perhaps a little more confusing and likely to cause you undue worry, is simply to carry your ideas around in your head and finally try to put them on paper in the form of a plan. These are not solutions of your problem but rather helpful guides.

The more orderly method is to make a check list and to give our thought reality we shall consider the requirements of a family living in a development of identical houses in Central New Jersey. Their check list should be used as a guide in making your own.

Topography – Fairly level Exposure – South ( that is, front of house faces south) Location – Central New Jersey Design of garden – Informal Existing vegetation ( trees and shrubs ) – None Garage – Single, attached Soil – Sandy loam, well drained Neighboring properties – Houses on both sides Age of owners – early 30′s Family – Father, mother, and three young children Parents like to work in garden Parents also like to relax in and enjoy the garden, and plan to entertain extensively out-of-doors. Size of property-75 x 125 feet Budget – calls for an expenditure of $750 a year for 6 years.

Analyzing the List

It is obvious that since this family intends to spend a great deal of time relaxing and entertaining their friends out-of-doors they will need a larger than average private area. The rough sketch will include ovals on the basic plot plan the majority of space in the area behind the house is labeled private.

Since the majority of space is devoted to this area, it is obvious that the service area must necessarily be small, perhaps just large enough to provide a few fresh vegetables and flowers that do not require too much care. The completed plan of a garden should serve our hypothetical family well. It provides them with a vast outdoor living room that will be excellent for entertaining and just enough service area to provide tomatoes, string beans, radishes, and flowers.

Now let us consider a neighboring family in similar circumstances who do not plan extensive outdoor entertainment. In their case the service area could be greatly expanded at the expense of the private area.The service area may occupy better than half the space behind the house is sufficiently large to provide all sorts of fresh vegetables and cut and specimen flowers, while the private area, though small, remains large enough to meet the relaxation needs of the family.

Give a great deal of thought and attention to compiling your own check list. Never fail to consider your future as well as your present requirements; plan your garden in such a way that it will mature to fit all your needs with a, minimum expenditure of time, effort, and money. Just like caring for spider mites on plants.

Since our list has shown us how to determine the relative sizes of the public, private, and service areas, we are now ready to begin developing the individual areas. Your next step is to consider each particular area and proceed to mold it into actuality.

In this “entrance” area, the aim is to create a pleasant setting for the house and a welcoming entrance to it. Since the house dominates the picture, particularly on a small property, plants should be arranged to bring out its good points and mask poor ones. A common mistake is to make the planting so elaborate and colorful that it distracts rather than complements.

On most properties the approach area needs to be defined on the sides by fences, hedges or shrub borders. The converging lines of these boundaries lead the eye to the house.

Frame the House with Foliage

The first step in planning the view of your property from the road is to frame the house with masses of foliage. If you have enough room, place trees or large groups of shrubs to the front and sides of the house. On a narrow lot you will probably have only enough space for one or two shrubs or trees.

These masses of foliage should be in scale with the house and property. They should be dark or mid green, and of average texture and habit of growth. Plants of outstanding character, such as golden-leaved mock orange or Koster’s spruce, are too showy to use here; save them to use where you want emphasis.

To soften the corners and set off some of the attractive features of the house, arrange a few shrubs near the base of the wall. In most cases a very few plants are better than the masses of foundation planting so common around houses on high concrete foundations.

Choose shrubs for their proper height, habit of growth and foliage texture. It is a mistake to choose them for their bloom as it is usually only present for a few days each summer.

Native trees and different zone 10 trees, such as pines, spruce and cedar, do not belong near the walls of a house. Instead, choose plants that, when full-grown, will not hide the desirable lines of the house or shut out light from the windows unless such shade is needed. The height and form of the plants at maturity determine the way in which the eye will travel.

Herbaceous plants are sometimes used at the base of a building but their form changes from season to season. They give no feeling of performance because they have no constant mass effect. Though colorful and attractive, neither they nor spring-flowering bulbs and annual flowers can take the place of permanent woody plants.

These annuals which are easily grown can be sown in the open and have flowers the same season.

Alyssum

A white variety can create a “Carpet of Snow” and is one of the annual varieties that are so valuable for bedding and edging. In bloom the entire season and into late autumn. Lift a few plants and pot them up for the indoor window garden. Masses of white blossoms on compact 4 inch plants.

CandyTurf

So delicate is its perfume, so modest its flowers. Under average soil conditions Candytuft provides a fortune in white and in pink in lavender and in rose, for a mere monetary pittance. Grow it in beds, along the walk, in the rockery and by the shrubbery. Make several sowings in a season.

Dianthus (Annual Pinks)

Growing from 10 to 14 inches high and bearing in profusion; beautifully colored flowers, either single or double, here is a group of subjects that will thrill you with their exotic brilliancy. Just a little fussy, they like a moist loam. Mass them in such soil and they will form a magical matting of curious color combination.

MARIGOLDS

They are truly the amateur gardener’s best friend and what a host of personalities. You can have tall ones, or dwarf kinds, singles or doubles, some with collars and others with blossoms that resemble great lemon colored and orange colored sponges. Carnation-like flowers, chrysanthemum-like flowers and flowers that are incurved are now common. And all are so valuable for cutting. Were you to let your imagination run wild you could have a garden of Marigolds exclusively. They can even be produced with or without incense. Keep up with the marigold trend. The seed catalogs describe many wondrous kinds.

Portulaca (Sun Plant) Grown under lights, on sunny embankments, on sunny rockeries and along sunny walks, Portulaca is astoundingly effective outdoors rather than indoors under no light. Make sure when you sow the seeds that you keep the soil moist until the seedlings commence to grow. Once established care can be confined to weeding as the plants are succulent in habit and will revel in the hottest sun under drought conditions that few other plants could survive.

Portulaca is a dwarf plant only 6 or 7 inches in height. Its colors are numerous and on sunny days dazzlingly brilliant. You can purchase in mixed packets single varieties or double varieties to suit your whims and fancies. Many interesting semi-double variations will be found in the double strains.